


Glas

by Kien Rugastelo (cein)



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Hallucinations, Language Barrier, M/M, Nihon Country, Safewords, Yama Country
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:26:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25665109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cein/pseuds/Kien%20Rugastelo
Summary: "In Yama, Fai had learned Kurogane’s language in spurts. At first, the only things that seemed to stick were the things Kurogane yelled the loudest."In Nihon, the effects of a plant take away their shared language all over again.
Relationships: Fay D. Fluorite/Kurogane
Comments: 4
Kudos: 64





	Glas

**Author's Note:**

> Poor Fai, having to do all the legwork...
> 
> (Keep in mind Fai's not working with a full vocabulary here).

In Yama, Fai had learned Kurogane’s language in spurts. At first, the only things that seemed to stick were the things Kurogane yelled the loudest: duck, left, right, move — all the things that helped keep Fai’s head on his shoulders where it belonged while up on the castle in the sky, things that helped them move together in a force that neither army could truly reckon with. _Good_ came later, and _stop that_ , and _fucking sleep_.

Kurogane had a sneaking suspicion Fai hadn’t been applying himself, was being deliberately obtuse to maintain a distance the same way he did when they could understand each other. He didn’t have the words to call him out on it.

Not that Kurogane thought the whole distance-maintaining thing was going that great, especially when they found themselves in bed together.

Fai didn’t lie as well when he didn’t have his words, and Kurogane took every measure to write the truth into his very bones at every opportunity. That he cared, that he knew Fai cared, that they were both scared, that they were going to get out of there someday regardless, that they would find the kids somehow if only because Kurogane was beginning to believe in the inevitable. That regardless of what Fai wanted him to believe, he knew the man was human and could only pretend to be allergic to comfort for so long.

Those were the nights he had to just short of bodily pin Fai down, that Fai was liable to spook like a horse, that Fai was the most honest he had ever seen him.

It was not one of those nights when Kurogane had moved and Fai had flinched. They were high on adrenaline and hasty to prove to each other that despite it all, they were still here and alive and were planning to continue that way. Still, Kurogane froze, and it only took a moment for Fai to exhale shakily. “Glas.”

There wasn’t enough emotion behind it for Kurogane to understand, so he remained still. “Glas?” he tried, tongue butchering the _L_ his native language did not have. Fai only nodded, fingers tightening on Kurogane’s bicep. It wasn’t enough, and they didn’t really have all the words they needed for this, so Kurogane tried one they did have: “Ii?” Was he good?

“Ii,” Fai confirmed, and though Kurogane had his doubts, he moved, and Fai didn’t shatter.

_Glas_ came back a few times after that, mostly in bed, and Kurogane wasn’t sure what it meant exactly. It came when Kurogane paused, when Fai wasn’t ready to stop, when Kurogane wasn’t sure if the sounds coming from Fai’s lips were pleasure or pain. It sounded like Fai reassuring him, or sometimes he was fighting with himself, but only to keep going, so keep going Kurogane did. _Buí_ came sometimes, when Fai needed to adjust, and Kurogane associated it with _wait_ . Once or twice, Fai had babbled _dearg_ over and over, and each time the word had ground everything to a halt for the night.

They were the only things Kurogane had picked up on Fai’s language aside from the various permutations of his own name. So maybe it wasn’t all that surprising when it came out in the sky. Fai had taken a hit — Kurogane had seen it, even if Fai was covering up the fact well enough, and it had been a nasty thing — but it was still long before they would be moved back down to the earth again. Fai wasn’t visibly struggling (yet), and Kurogane wasn’t about to advertise his weakness to anyone else, especially not to Ashura’s side, whose dialect was similar enough to Yasha’s that Kurogane could understand them just as well.

Kurogane’s quick shout of “Glas?” caught Fai’s attention immediately, and if there was a bit of a laugh in Fai’s voice when he sent the word back, it didn’t matter. Fai could continue, and that was all he needed to know.

It had worked out in their favor, having a system that the other soldiers couldn’t understand. _Glas_ came up frequently after a hit, or when one had vanished from the sight of the other, _buí_ when things got a little hairy, _dearg_ when an extraction was needed. Kurogane wasn’t sure exactly what any of them actually meant in Fai’s language, but it was a functional code, and that was all he was concerned about.

When they left Yama, those words were left behind in favor of the expediency of a shared understanding. Even if Fai had continued to use them, they met Kurogane’s ears in his own language, and the knowledge of them was set aside in the back of Kurogane’s mind.

If anything, Nihon proved to Kurogane that Fai really hadn’t been applying himself to learning the language in Yama, or if he had, he had kept most of that knowledge to himself and feigned ignorance at every opportunity. But Yama was worlds away now, as were Sakura, and Mokona and Syaoran, and Fai could babble on well enough after a couple months. He mixed tenses, and he only ever seemed to have a grasp of honorifics and humble language when in the presence of court, but his grasp of the language was sound enough that their misunderstandings were few.

Or at least, it was, when Fai was not suffering the effects of being stung by a damn plant.

It was an invasive thing that had come from provinces further south and taken over some of the abandoned fields in Suwa, and of everyone that had to go and step on one in such a way that a thorn managed to pierce their sandal, it just had to have been Fai. At the time, they had just dug it out of his shoe and carried on, believing that would be the end of it. When Fai seemed increasingly distracted throughout the afternoon, they’d both dismissed it as how poorly he slept in the summer heat. When Fai started taking second glances at things in the corners of his vision around sundown, Fai had simply written it off as shadows playing tricks on his tired mind. It was when they were in the shelter of their shack and Kurogane noticed that Fai was flushed and squinting at things as if there was something intrinsically wrong about what he was seeing, that Kurogane threw him bodily on the back of a horse and booked it back to civilization.

By the time they had made it to town, Fai was in full delirium. Kurogane could only describe Fai’s symptoms as the ones he had observed, but as luck would have it, the doctor was familiar enough with the effects of the plant to assure Kurogane the effects weren’t fatal, that although there wasn’t a medicine that would counteract it, that Fai would be back to normal after a night’s sleep.

There wasn’t any _Nihongo_ left in Fai’s speech now as they laid together in their room at the inn — well as Kurogane laid, and Fai cycled between laying down and startling to full alertness. Still, Fai stayed glued to his side, as if the only thing he could trust in this world was real was Kurogane himself. Kurogane doubted Fai had understood a word of what the doctor had said. If he had, surely he’d be trying to sleep instead of keeping an anxious vigil, searching the shadows for the next illusion to jump out at him.

They needed words for this, Kurogane lamented as Fai pushed himself back up to a crouched position, ready to pounce at whatever hallucination was haunting him now. They needed Fai to trust that Kurogane was more than adequate to keep the both of them safe, that regardless of whatever it was Fai was going through, he needed to calm down and fucking sleep, but of all of Fai’s words, Kurogane only knew three of them.

So Kurogane reached up blindly, yanking Fai back down by his collar and wrapping around him not too unlike an octopus in the hopes that the hold alone would keep him down. Fai squirmed, pushing away without much force, babbling on, and Kurogane had _had it_. He held Fai closer, willing him to finally still. “Glas,” he tried, and Fai sucked in a breath. Kurogane projected as much comfort as he could, despite his exhaustion: “Glas, alright? Fucking glas.”

If anything, Fai pressed closer, nosing in just beneath Kurogane’s ear, and though he was trembling, he stopped fighting, and breathed deep. (Kurogane made the choice to believe Fai was not choosing now of all times to smell him). Kurogane could feel Fai’s nod, then, as his fingers tightened in Kurogane’s yukata. “Glas,” he repeated, sounding just as tired as Kurogane was.

It was enough. “That’s right, glas. Now go to sleep already.”

Kurogane was the first to wake in the morning — which was fine, in his opinion; if Fai needed anything right now it was rest — and he laid there patiently for what felt like hours, not daring to move despite the tingling of his sleeping arm until Fai began to stir, nuzzling closer in semi-consciousness as the last vestiges of sleep slipped away from his mind. It wasn’t long before Fai pulled away slightly, looking around them in confusion. “This isn’t the shack,” he murmured.

Kurogane let out a breath. Maybe it was better if Fai didn’t remember the previous night. “We had to come to town to see the doctor.”

“Doctor?” Fai parroted, still groggy.

“You got bit by a hallucinogenic plant,” Kurogane supplied, though he was fairly certain Fai wouldn’t understand _hallucinogenic_. “What do you remember from last night?”

Fai separated from him slowly, looking around as if the very walls had answers. “Things became strange, like a bad dream” he answered. “It was cold, then we were flying. There were demons, and — ” Fai stopped himself, eyebrows furrowing. “Did you tell me we were green?”

“We were what?” Kurogane asked, now sitting up himself.

“Glas,” Fai supplied. “It means green.”

Kurogane didn’t sputter through sheer force of will. “Why the hell would you use green during sex?”

It was worth it to see Fai’s smile return. “My language does not have a very direct yes or no, and we didn’t have very many words as it was so… Green, yellow, and red.”

Kurogane put a hand to his forehead in disbelief, muttering, “This whole time it’s been colors.”

“Kuro-sama?” Fai began, then waited patiently until Kurogane peeked back up at him before he continued: “Glas?”

It was more than colors for them now, though. It was assurement, affection, permission — a whole slew of things Kurogane wasn’t sure there were words for in any language, but he would try to seek them out, one day. For now, though, Fai was waiting, so Kurogane said the only thing he could:

“Glas.”


End file.
